The writing challenge for Week One is finished and posted!
It's a short play, and I think it turned out pretty well for a writing exercise.
Will follow up later tonight or tomorrow with reflections on Week One and then the challenge for Week Two.
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 3:29PM in Inspiration Happy Friday!
From Austin Kleon, 10 good points about writing and also an illustration.
From myself, that story/play/thing is slowly coming along -- will post it on here either tomorrow or Sunday, followed by Week Two's challenge (!) on Monday.
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 3:27PM in Inspiration Okay, one more Lists of Note for you and then I'm done for today, I swear:
Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:
[...]
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.[...]
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.
Read the rest here.
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 7:44AM in Inspiration In addition to Letters of Note, Lists of Note has some excellent "found" inspiration from time to time. A recent one, from Thelonious Monk:
DON’T PLAY THE PIANO PART, I’M PLAYING THAT. DON’T LISTEN TO ME. I’M SUPPOSED TO BE ACCOMPANYING YOU!
THE INSIDE OF THE TUNE (THE BRIDGE) IS THE PART THAT MAKES THE OUTSIDE SOUND GOOD.
DON’T PLAY EVERYTHING (OR EVERY TIME); LET SOME THINGSGO BY. SOME MUSIC JUST IMAGINED. WHAT YOU DON’T PLAY CAN BE MORE IMPORTANT THAT WHAT YOU DO.
ALWAYS LEAVE THEM WANTING MORE.
Read the rest here.
My second biggest hurdle to writing (the first being the repeated application of butt to chair) is finding the time. I work full time, Monday to Friday, and I also have a part-time job that claims between 10 and 14 hours of my weeknights and weekends.
For this challenge, I resolved to get up an hour early each morning, and I can see already what an adjustment that's going to be. It is very, very difficult for me to go from work, to more work, and then straight to bed when I get home, which is exactly what I'd need to do to have a crazy productive morning of writing abandon. After a 14-hour day, I feel like I've earned my evening, even if it's already 10pm and I have another 14-day waiting for me tomorrow.
One good thing has already come out of this, though: I know that I can write longhand during my commute between the first job and the second. I don't know if this is true for all writerlies, but at least when starting something new, I work best with very small parameters and a short amount of time. This way, there's no space for me to become overwhelmed by setting, plot, character, meaning -- "We were sitting too close together" and all you have is 15 minutes to figure out what the next person says. Go!
By way of update to Week One, I have several small notebook pages of banter-like dialogue written out. I haven't decided yet whether I'm just getting out the dialogue now (I've never written a story that way, but it could be interesting) or if this is going to be a 10-minute play. Usually a decision like that would stop me from going further until I'd made a choice one way or the other, but this morning's hour is already up and all that's left now is my commute between jobs one and two.
There's no time to think. Only to write.
Hmm. Well.
This is from a page of notes taken during my psychology and literature classes.
"We were sitting too close together."
It was probably overheard, but I have no idea who said it, what the context was, or why I thought it was worth writing down.
What to do with this. Are these people who don't like each other, or who like each other too much...? Two people, perhaps, who have to make a conscious and constant effort to hide from the world how much they're drawn to each other?
Why would it matter if they were found out? Maybe they are with other people, or work together, or aren't "out" to the world?
I think maybe I could work with this...
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 8:39PM in Reflections This semester, my first, was the toughest by far for me. Whether because I first came to Emerson College "undeclared" (I was perhaps one of three people in my class to do so -- Emersonians typically have no trouble declaring themselves) or because all Freshmen must endure this, my course load was all core requirements:
I had this sense that I either wanted to be a writer, or an actor, or maybe a playwright, or possibly an English teacher who also taught drama. So my required courses were at least kind of tailored to my interests, but I still found it tough going.
Interestingly, most of the marginalia I'll be mining from this time will be from Psychology of Personality, which was taught by the indomitable Peter Corea, who, after teaching psychology to dippy arts kids for nearly four decades, had been diagnosed with a terminal disease and had chosen to spend his final months doing what he always had: teaching.
Inspired, I think, by Tuesdays with Morrie (he referenced the book often), his class had less to do with Howard Gardner and more about the antics of Richard Feynman, how words can prevent true understanding, and how if we as a species are ever going to evolve, we have to focus not on unity, but harmony.
Ours was the last full semester he taught. Dr. Peter Corea died the following year. But my 19-year-old mind -- burning as it was with ideas, regrets, judgement, self doubt -- found inspiration in his class and also a much-needed outlet.
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 5:52PM in Introduction Each week, I'll be digging through shoeboxes of old college notebooks, papers, and daily planners for all the unbearably brilliant ideas I never turned into stories.
Of course, part of the fun here will be taking ideas that are, I suspect, heavy-handed, overwrought, and/or melodramatic and earnestly trying to turn them into something interesting.
Some of these probably won't be very good, but I'll let you decide that. My only responsibility is to put pen to paper and to be truthful about the process.
The inspiration for this blog is part Letters of Note ("found" documents that have gained significance over time), part Austin Kleon (an artist who is generous about sharing his process and inspiration), and part Dean Wesley Smith (an indie author who recently challenged himself to write 100 stories in one year), mixed with several parts of my own need to strong-arm myself into writing regularly again.
My home page outlines a bit more the challenge I have set for myself. If you're interested, here's some context about the guy who had all of these "interesting" ideas. Finally, if you'd like to contact me, you can do so here!